The United States Men’s National Team fell 2-1 to Türkiye in East Hartford, Connecticut, on Saturday. It’s the USMNT’s third straight defeat of 2025, following losses to Panama and Canada in the Nations League finals in March.
If that sounds like bad news for the USMNT, it is; the team would rather not be scrabbling for results on home soil just one year out from hosting the World Cup. But this performance against Türkiye was full of moments that prove the USMNT’s future remains bright. With the likes of Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Yunus Musah and Antonee Robinson all unavailable, the USMNT B-team put in a spirited performance that looked far more coherent than what the A-team managed a few short months ago.
Games like this one deserve context. While the USMNT obviously wants to win every match it enters, its under-resourced B-team probably should be playing out a closely-run loss against a strong European opponent like Türkiye. Anything better than that would be exceptional; anything worse than that would be inadequate. That means this particular loss isn’t a catastrophe for the USMNT: it’s simply an extension of the team’s status quo. (Whether or not that is a catastrophe in and of itself, however, remains an open question.)
Who stood out during this performance? Who fell short? And who might be working their way into Pochettino’s A-team as the World Cup looms? Here are our thoughts on the USMNT’s winners and losers against Türkiye:
Winner: Jack McGlynn
McGlynn is a polarizing figure within the USMNT fandom. To his supporters, McGlynn is one of the team’s few true line-breaking passers. To his detractors, though, McGlynn is something of a defensive liability: the kind of player who has neither the speed nor the positional awareness to track back and cover for his teammates. If he’s not scoring bangers, his detractors reason, he’s not doing anything at all.
Well. On Saturday, McGlynn scored one of those trademark jaw-dropping left-footed goals, and he managed to do it just 59 seconds after kickoff. His beautiful curled shot knocked the air clean out of Türkiye’s lungs and tilted the opening twenty minutes firmly in the USMNT’s favor. McGlynn may never be the all-around midfielder USMNT fans need him to be, but performances like this one show just how world-class he is as a goalscorer.